The Chinese men's 4x100-meter relay team comprising runners Xie Zhenye, Wu Zhiqiang, Chen Jiapeng and Yan Haibing secured qualification for the event for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris at the World Athletics Relays in Nassau, The Bahamas, in May.
Seven months before that, Xie, Chen Jiapeng, Yan and Chen Guanfeng won the men's 4x100-meter gold medal for China at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, in October 2023.
Chen Jiapeng, as the team's fourth runner, surpassed his Japanese rival at the end of the race for his side to win it in 38.29 seconds.
It was decided for Chen Jiapeng to be the fourth runner only half a month before the Asian Games began. He just turned 21 in July 2023. Compared with Xie, the rest three of the team were all young blood in their early 20s.
"(The old team members) also have a lot of passion. We young blood think that our big brothers can do it and so can we. We can do even better. As the fourth and last runner, all I can do is to run forward the fastest that I can. Sure there is a sense of mission, but we do not put pressure on each other. Every runner holds his position well and we believe in each other," Chen said.
It has been a tradition for the Chinese men's relay team to load young runners with key roles. For example, in the men's 4x100-meter relay final at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Wu, who was the second-youngest of the four, was the fourth one to start and he surpassed the Jamaican runner for China to finish in the fourth place in 37.79 seconds. Later, China were awarded the bronze medal, their first Olympic medal in the sport, after silver medalists Great Britain were stripped of their honor over a doping violation.
Of course, young runners were given the heavy duties only because they showed the ability to shoulder them. For example, Chen Jiapeng finished a men's 100-meter race in the U.S. in 10.08 seconds in April, becoming the fifth Chinese athlete to run faster than 10.1 seconds.
"As we all know, since the Asian Games last year, we have been in a phase of the alternation of the old and the new, and our men's sprint team is in a relatively difficult period. This year it is turning better. On the basis of last year's training, these young runners, like Chen Jiapeng and Yan Haibin, have practiced with the team for so many years, with their capability reaching a certain level. The young athletes need to accumulate more experience," said Wang Danwei, coach for Chinese men's 4x100m relay team.
Though Su Bingtian has to skip the Paris Olympics after failing to maintain systematic training sessions in nearly two years, the growth of the young generation gave the team confidence for the competition in Paris.
Baton passed to young generation of Chinese men's relay team
Baton passed to young generation of Chinese men's relay team
